Diasporas Concepts, Intersections, Identities

Despite the increasing importance of the concept of 'diaspora' and its widespread use in academic case studies and in the self-description of a number of minority communities and networks, the subject has received relatively little general scholarly treatment.Diasporas: Concepts, Identities, Intersectionsaddresses this lack by providing a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the political and cultural ideas and groups involved. Wide-ranging and interdisciplinary, the book contains examinations of major concepts and theories, including migration, ethnicity and postcolonialism. It also provides introductions to selected key diasporas -- Jewish, Irish and African American among others -- as well as discussions of diaspora in relation to a range of important issues and processes, and explorations of new directions in research.

Kim Knott is Director of the AHRC "Diasporas, Migration and Identities" Programme (a £6.3 million investment), overseeing some fifty small and large projects, workshops and networks. She combines this with her role as Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Leeds where she continues to manage her own research projects, to teach research methods and to supervise student projects on religious diasporic communities, and religion, space and locality. Her first book was on what would now be called the "Hindu diaspora" in Britain (1986); her most recent on is The Location of Religion: A Spatial Analysis (2005). Her work has included articles over many years on migration, ethnicity, identity and religion, and more recently space and place. She has good contacts with scholars internationally as a result of her program directorship and roles in the International Association for the History of Religions and European Association for the Study of Religions. http://www.diasporas.ac.uk/Kim_Knott.htm; http://www.leeds.ac.uk/trs/staff/kim_knott.htm  Sean McLoughlin is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Leeds working in the fields of Islamic studies and anthropology of religion, and teaching on Muslims, multiculturalism and citizenship. He is author of the forthcoming book, Representing Muslims: Religion, Ethnicity and the Politics of Identity (Pluto Press, 2007) and co-editor (with J. Cesari) of European Muslims and the Secular State (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2005) and many articles on British Muslims, Islam in Europe, and South Asian studies. His recent article on Migration, diaspora and transnationalism: transformations of religion and culture in a globalizing age is the final chapter in the Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion. He is Principal Investigator of the AHRC network, From Diaspora to Multi-Locality: Writing British Asian Cities, and co-convenor of the Muslims in Britain Research Network. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/trs/staff/sean_mcloughlin.htm